Aliens in the backyard

I walk into the garden every day to check on my seedlings and plants. Why? Well, I want something to grow, dammit!  And by presenting myself as garden warden, those plants will be productive members of my backyard prison OR ELSE.  I also sing to them and talk encouragingly, begging them to grow quickly and beautifully. I figure a multi-faceted good cop/bad cop-in-one approach would be best.

This morning, I admired my lovely plants as I walked down the path Ryan built.

A seedling from the "gourmet bean collection" at Costco.  Katie wanted to plant some beans, so I pulled them out of the pantry.  Every last one has sprouted, so we'll see how it all works out.

Parsley I grew from seed, Basil I bought at the nursery.  

Mint in the tire I found on the side of the road.  This plant has doubled in size in less than two weeks.  Tip: Mint should be planted in a container because it will take over everything. Very invasive sucker, that mint.

What's that in the planter?  That soil looks funny.

Oh yeah, it's an onion scrap.  I didn't have any soil to put in the planter, so I put half-decomposed compost in there.  It was an experiment. Considering how happy the mint seems to be, I think I made the right choice.

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

I know I saw a cat back there this morning, and she loves to use my garden as a litter box.  Must be sick and spreading the bacterial or cancerous wealth for my own kitty cat.

There's more of it!

It's taking over!  That cat is dead meat!

I asked Ryan clean it up, which he graciously did, wisely using some large pieces of bark to dispose of this obviously toxic waste rather than contaminating a shovel.

And then he did what I should have done. He looked up "Dog Barf Fungus" on Google.  Yup.  This yellow stuff is called slime mold (although it's not considered a fungus anymore).  It looks like animal vomit and is actually protoplasm.  How awesome is that? I have protoplasm in my back yard!  

Turns out it's totally harmless, and that some people, way back in the day, would eat the protoplasm--kind of like scrambled eggs.  I'm not sure I'll be doing that anytime soon, but at least that gray and white cat won't be getting the evil eye from me...today.